Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, let no one doubt her genius.
I would like to dedicate this chapter to: Minschen, Merina 2 & Disney Vampire, my only reviewers for Holly Ivy so far.
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The body thudded to the floor as Darius threw it over his shoulder with a bone cracking snap. The thing writhed about; still trying to get us as its life quickly ebbed away. I brought my foot down quickly on its throat and I heard the creak of sinews and the crack of even more bones as the creature's neck collapsed beneath my heavy boot.
It flapped for a full minuet like a fish on the hook while I kept the pressure constant. I held my face in an emotionless mask, while truth be told I wanted to screw up my nose and grimace at the abomination that lay writhing at my feet. It was a full minuet before it finally gave up the ghost and went limp, the fires of life disappearing from the mad animal eyes.
I held my position a moment longer to insure that the creature was truly expired. In the light of the full moon the thick matted fur began to melt away to reveal grubby scar ravaged skin beneath. The body shape changed too, it left behind its canine bearings to become that of a homo sapiens.
Red blood stained the snow as it poured from the creature's ruined neck. It looked like the broken body of a frail old man now, with grizzled grey hair that fell to his shoulders and a wispy beard on his age ravaged face. Such a harmless looking old beggar-man. It was hard to believe he had left such a wave of destruction across half of Russia.
We had been tracking this one for a week, only able to do so properly at night for the Children of the Moon were hard to detect in their human guise. Without revulsion I broke the head from the body and held it up so I could closer inspect the face.
I gave a little laugh as realisation dawned.
"What's so funny?" Darius asked, looking up from his work of taking the rest of the creature apart. His spiky blond hair was messy from his tussle with the beast and part of his shirt had been ripped away, revealing the wiry muscles beneath.
"I told you it was him." I said, throwing the head to him.
Darius caught it reflexively and turned it in his sinuous hands so he could look at the face himself.
"So you did." He said, letting the head fall unceremoniously to the floor.
"Do you not see what this means?" I demanded angrily as I piled up the firewood.
"That you had a lucky guess." He replied flippantly as he continued with the dismemberment.
"I did not guess." I snapped indignantly, the very thought? "I knew it was him. I told you his colour was off."
"His colour, his colour." Darius mimicked as he began piling the body parts on top of the pyre. "What does that even mean?"
"I have told you of my talent before. I am a great tracker, that's why I was assigned to this team. My sense of smell is something of a marvel. All immortals have their own colours, you for instance are green and yellow all twisted together like snakes with an undercurrent of darkness." I explained.
Darius shrugged, grinning unashamedly while he threw the can of gasoline over the wood.
"All humans are grey, there are the odd few who sparkle, but they are few and far between. He had brownness about the grey. The wolf essence that clings to the Children of the Moon while out at night. It is still about them when they assume human form, I can smell it."
"Don't be foolish. It's hard to detect a werewolf when it's disguised in human flesh. If we could it would make our job a whole lot easier. Humans are much easier to kill." He observed as he set fire to a branch before applying it to the pyre.
I watched moodily as the flames caught and climbed high into the night, casting ruddy light on the snow around it. I could tell who the werewolves were during the day, why didn't they believe me?
"Ah, don't look so sad Hols." He said, placing an arm around my shoulder. "Now let's get out of here before the villagers arrive."
I sighed and followed him, ghosting through the trees to the rendezvous point.
Saskia our commander was already there, awaiting the arrival of the various teams. She was tall, slender and raven haired, which she wore long and flowing in a cascade down her back. She gave us a cold look as we entered the clearing.
"Darius, Holly back so soon? Were your quests so unfruitful?" She asked.
"Unfruitful?" Darius questioned with a cheeky grin. "I'd say there was quite a lot of fruit." He grinned throwing the werewolf's tail into her astonished hands.
Funny, I did not notice him cutting it off.
Saskia pulled the tail through her fingers looking thoughtful.
"You have done well this night Darius." She said smiling slightly, it was the first time I'd ever seen her do this, I thought her incapable of such an act.
"Well it wasn't all me." He replied jovially. "Holly here's the best tracker in the biz." He said, clapping me on the back enthusiastically. "Recons she can even spot them when they're pretending to be human."
"Is this true?" Saskia question with an amused smirk on her face.
I shot Darius a look of betrayal.
"The creature we exterminated this evening was the one I pointed out in the town this morning." I replied quietly. "It was more than likely a fluke." I added dejectedly.
"Do you believe this?" Saskia questioned.
I drew in a breath and forced a bright smile on to my face, I looked up at her and said, "Of course I do, who could possibly detect werewolves when they are not in lupus form?"
"Well that is a shame." Saskia said with a sad little sigh. "And Aro was so very hopeful about you."
"Aro?" I asked intrigued.
I had met the amiable leader of the Volturi when I'd first arrived in Volterra. He was a strange one indeed, able to read your entire history in one touch. He had been most enthralled by the colours I saw with scent. He was also pleased to learn that Ramsey would be returning soon with a newborn who could possibly predict the future, but he was still yet to return even after a decade. It was Aro who suggested I join the extermination squad, to put my tracking abilities to good use.
"Yes. He told me personally that if anyone could judge a werewolf in the day then it would be you. But if you cannot…"
"Oh but I can." I blurted out.
"Really?" She asked.
"Yes." I replied and I went on to explain to her about how scents were like colours to me and how the colours of the Children of the Moon differs from that of normal humans.
At the end of my speech she nodded her head thoughtfully.
"We shall have to test this theory. I have word that there is an infestation a hundred miles south of here. When the others return we will set out at once. Then we can test your theory, if what you say is true then it will make it even easier to rid the world of their evil race." Saskia declared zealously.
I smiled at this, the werewolves were a problem, they tore villages apart, mutilating men women and children alike, changing those who weren't lucky enough to die. The curse continued and their strength grew and faded with the waxing and the waning of the moon. Anything that helped us lessen their numbers was greatly welcomed. I prayed that my talent would be of merit to us in our endeavour.
It was an hour after dawn when we stood in the village in question. It was a bustle even this early in the morning, with humans going about their everyday lives. We drew few glances from the people who passed us, despite the fact that Saskia was dressed in one of the thick Russian Commanding officer's military great coats that despite being originally cut for a man she had adapted to accentuate her curves with the use of a belt. Darius was dressed as a low ranking officer of the Russian army while I was dressed in dark grey hard wearing trousers, I know, me in trousers! I thought I'd never see the day, but it made these missions so much the easier when my legs were not hampered by a needless excess of material. I wore a basic white blouse and over all of this a grey woollen great coat that had I not been a vampire would have kept me toasty warm.
I wore a scarf around my head; somewhat in the hope of drawing attention away from my flame red hair for it did cause quite a fuss in some places. All three of us wore the so called "sun glasses" over our eyes. The darkened lenses were good for hiding the nature present in our eyes.
Only the three of us entered the village, the rest were two miles away hidden in one of the Volturi's many properties that they owned throughout the world. This was purely reconnaissance and the presence of so many immortals would make the locals uneasy at best. It was the three of us because Saskia was the team leader and it was her duty to oversee everything. Darius was here because we always worked in teams of twos, one tracker, one fighter. And I was here because; well it was my theory we were testing.
The sky was blessedly heavy with snow so we did not have to stick to the shadows, this made scanning the crowds all the easier. At this precise time however I was only sensing the subtle greys of the humans. There was a werewolf around here, we had tracked his scent to the edge of town but then it disappeared under the snow. The foul beast must have tunnelled itself a burrow in the heavy drifts.
The wretch would more than likely turn up here though for this was the nearest village. The sad truth was that the trauma of the change was such that the Children of the Moon walked the moonless hours never knowing that they carried the curse, which was one of the reasons they were hard to spot. This also meant that they were not deterred from entering the dwelling places of humans.
"Any sign yet." Saskia asked in a quick low voice that the humans would not have understood even if they did speak English.
"Not yet." I whispered.
Just then an old lady who was walking past stopped and came up to us. She regarded us critically for a full minuet before saying something in Russian.
Saskia smiled and replied.
The old woman frowned and gasped, quickly making the sign of the cross, and spitting our general direction, before moving quickly away from us muttering something that sounded like a mantra. I put my head on one side and watched her retreat curiously.
"Superstitious old bag." Saskia hissed.
"What did she say?" I asked.
I knew many languages but Russian wasn't one of them. I made a mental note that next time I was in Volterra I would endeavour to learn.
"She saw that we were in military uniform and came to ask if we had come to do something about the killings. I replied that this is what we had come to do. I know not what she saw but she suddenly cried out that we were demons and we should leave." Saskia translated disdainfully.
"But we are here to help." I pointed out.
"That as may be, but we still made her feel nervous." Saskia grouched, shoving her hands deep into her pockets. "Demons indeed! I thought the Communists were atheists."
"Just because the country is, doesn't mean the people are." I observed solemnly. "Religion is hard to take from a person when it is ingrained from birth."
We fell into a thoughtful silence. I stared off into the crowed, drawing the breath in through my nose. And then I caught it, the odd suggestion of brown. I sniffed harder, trying to locate the source of the scent. I pinpointed him, the ragged beggar sifting through a pile of litter.
He was small and scrawny, his hair and beard long, not out of preference but because he had no other choice. If something should have put him out of place it should have been the fact that he wore nothing but a thin shirt and trousers. It was cold enough here for frostbite to set in within minuets, and yet here the creature was, walking around as if it were mid-summer in Spain.
"That's him." I breathed a whisper to Saskia.
Saskia followed my gaze and frowned.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
I nodded my head.
"Right, then I want you and Darius to track him, see where he goes. But don't kill him until the moon rises." Saskia ordered.
"But I am sure he is werewolf." I protested.
"Never the less I want to see if he changes with the rise of the moon, for if he truly is a werewolf then we can detect them in the day and therefore eradicate them when it is safer for us." Saskia argued.
I nodded my head again, she was right of course, it would be wrong to kill an innocent, especially when it wasn't for food.
"Of course." I replied quietly. "Come Darius." I said, grabbing his arm.
Saskia left us and we set off after the suspected werewolf at a safe distance. He had found a sack and was proceeding to fill it with scraps he found in the various piles of rubbish. Surely some of it must be food.
We tracked him through the village for three hours, and if he did notice us he didn't show any sign that he had. It was around eleven when he finally left the confines of the village, heading out over the snow filled fields to who knew where.
It was a journey of at least three miles outside of the village, the path he took seemed random but after a while there seemed to be a direction in his twisted mind. It was a brick building almost lost in the snowdrifts. We waited for him to enter and then found a way in ourselves through a broken window.
We were up in the steel rafters, moving ever closer, oh so silently toward the middle of the room where a group of six people clustered. They could have passed for a family group, the old man and woman the grandparents, the man we'd been following the middle-aged father, the other three two boys and a girl, who looked no more than thirteen, the children.
As we got closer their scents hit my nose and their colours hit my mind.
Impossible!
I froze rigid as the truth assaulted my mind. I stopped breathing and therefore I stopped smelling. The colours drained away and in the clarity that now filled my mind I reasoned that I was mistaken.
I smiled slightly, then breathed in through my nose once more. The colours returned and this time I was sure I was not mistaken. From each of the people in the room bellow rose the grey scent of the human, but twisted around every single one of them was the feral brown of the wolf.
I felt my body freeze again and my breathing stopped.
I felt Darius' eyes on me and heard the sigh as he opened his mouth to speak. I looked up quickly and held my finger to my lips, motioning him into silence. I saw the questions in his eyes, but I could not answer them here. I motioned for us to retreat outside.
Once I was sure we were well away I dropped to my knees in the snow.
"What's wrong Hols?" Darius asked, his voice devoid of any of its normal teasing.
"They're all werewolves." I gasped.
"What?"
"All of them in there. All six of them are werewolves." I said solemnly.
"Don't be foolish Holly. You don't get that many in one place, they tare each other to shreds." Darius scoffed.
"How do you know?" I demanded. "Nobody knows the habits of the Children of the Moon when they take human form. Who's to say that they don't band together out of some curios sense of belonging during the day only to rip each other apart once the moon rises?"
"Perhaps." He conceded. "But six of them? The biggest infestation ever recorded is only three."
"Perhaps we haven't been paying close enough attention." I remarked darkly as I rose to my feet. "Perhaps we have underestimated the cursed ones."
"If it's true what are we gonna do?" Darius asked.
I looked at him in silence for what was probably just a bit longer than was comfortable.
"We need Saskia." I stated. "You go to her, and I'll stay here and keep an eye on the beasts."
"But what if they attack?" He asked concerned, he was the fighter of our pairing after all.
"What?" I demanded. "In the day? While the moon is yet to rise?"
"I suppose." He said in conciliatory tones. "But no going into that place alone." He warned.
"As if I intended to." I shot back. "Now please, go fetch Saskia, she will know what to do."
He nodded his head once, then ghosted away.
I climbed a tree that offered a good view and watched the building, waiting.
It was not long before Darius returned with Saskia and the rest of our squad.
"What does Darius tell me of a group of six?" Saskia asked as she joined me on my branch.
"There are six of them Saskia." I said calmly. "All of them werewolves."
"Are you sure?" She asked.
"I wish I wasn't." I replied coldly.
"Six." She mused. "And how many of us are there?" She asked.
"Seven including you." I replied, never tearing my eyes away from that cursed filled building.
"Equal numbers." She said thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. "It will be dangerous, but I believe we can succeed. We have the upper hand after all. We will ambush them at moon rise, they will not know what hit them."
I nodded my head in agreement, still not shifting my gaze.
Night fell and although it was too cloudy to be sure I knew the moon rose in the sky. With the rising of the moon came the howlings from within. The wolves were awakening for the night and bursting forth from their human visages.
"I guess you were right Holly." Saskia whispered as we took our positions poised to jump. "There are werewolves in the."
We all fell into silence as the door opened and a dark shape slinked out, it sniffed at the snow and then at the air before heading in the general direction of the village. It passed near the tree where Simone hid, she dropped down on it's back and wrapped her arms around its neck. It let out a sound that was hard to decipher, and Simone cut it short with a twist of its neck.
The other wolves piled out of the building, all running as one toward where Simone was still tangling with the first wolf. They were going to defend it, but we would defend our friend.
I streaked from my tree and landed on the nearest wolf, my trajectory causing it to flip over. I rolled and regained my feet as the wolf regained its footing, turning to face me with its yellow teeth on display as it issued a primal threatening growl.
I snarled back, displaying my own razor sharp teeth. Our eyes locked and we began to circle, partners in the ancient dance of death.
The wolf was the first to break the pattern, lunging across the invisible circle to snap at my neck. I dodged easily and managed to drag my nails like claws down its left flank, I left a gouge of bloody flesh in my wake and the wolf yelped in pain. I grinned, savouring that sound. It meant I was doing my job right.
The wolf spun around, snapping at me once more, I kicked it in the side of the head and sent it sprawling to the floor. Before it had time to recover I jumped on its back and placed my hands on either side of its face and twisted. It was only a matter of moments before the head came away in my hands.
I sat where I was, breathing heavily although I was not out of breath. I felt elated, I had managed to fight and kill a werewolf all on my own and I had not suffered any injury. I held the head up in my hands, grinning at the immobile face as the sounds of battle continued around me.
The fur was beginning to melt away now, the body, in death, returning to its original form.
I almost dropped the dread thing when I saw those glassy blue eyes stare blankly at me. The girl, barely thirteen at most with her long dark hair tangled into a knotty mess with her own blood. The werewolf I had fought for my very life was nothing more than a child. What monsters to pass this curse on to one so young!
It was this fact, that they could take this little girl and turn her into a monster, that made me determined that all werewolves should die. For they were all evil, they just couldn't help it.
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Thank you for reading, please, please, please review!
You know you want to,
Gemma x